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Your needs By local farmers.

A pilot plan to be tested in Mahaboobnagar.

Submitted by

T.Sudarshan Reddy,

M2014SE018.

Centre for Social Entrepreneurship,

Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.

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Table of contents: PG.NO

1. Acknowledgement -------------- 3

2. Introduction about entrepreneur ------------- 4

3. Executive Summary ------------- 4

4. Problem and Problem mapping ------------- 5

5. Aspiration of intervention ------------- 10

6. Venture opportunity and concept ------------- 10

7. Pilot concept ------------- 11

8. Marketing plan ------------- 11

9. Technology plan ------------- 12

10. Operations plan --------------- 12

11. Financial Plan --------------- 13

12. Plan of action for pilot --------------- 14

13. Expected Impact --------------- 15

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Acknowledgement:

With immense pleasure, I would like to present this pilot plan in which I would like to see the “feasibility

of vegetable farming in rural areas" as part of our course Venture plan II. It is great opportunity to undergo

this area of learning and experiment, which would not have possible without the support of people around. I

take this as an opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to all those who helped me to reach here.

It is my pleasure to extend my sincere thanks and gratitude to chairperson of Centre for Social

Entrepreneurship, TISS, Mumbai, Prof. Satyajit Majumdar who has been guiding us right from the day of

joining. I would also like to thank all other professors of Center for Social Entrepreneurship and other

professors who helped me directly or indirectly throughout my journey.

I would like to thank for the support of Mr. Raviraj Durwas of center of social entrepreneurship

for being first point of contact for all the issues that we face.

I would also like to convey my special regards to Mr.Narendar Garidi and Mr. Vamsi Krishna

Nukala, TISS alumni who have been giving their valuable guidance throughout my journey.

Finally I would like to thank all alumni, my seniors and batch mates for their feedback and

suggestions.

T.Sudarshan Reddy,

M2014SE018.

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Introduction about Entrepreneur:

T.Sudarshan Reddy

Sudarshan is pursuing masters in Social Entrepreneurship at Tata Institute of

Social Sciences. Before joining TISS he worked for Computer Science

Corporation for 3.5 years. He did engineering in computer science from CVR

College of engineering-Hyderabad. He hails from agriculture family and he is

very passionate about agriculture and its sustainability. He is aspiring to see

agriculture as an acceptable career option. He is inclined towards developing

cluster models in rural areas and also interested in traveling and reading.

Executive Summary:

Day by day the need for food is increasing whereas the number of people choosing agriculture as a

career option has been decreasing and the number of people moving away from farming has been

increasing. This scenario is even more in case of vegetable farmers. Earlier urban areas used to get

vegetables from villages but at present it has been happening the other way around. Farmers nearby cities

are growing vegetables and traders from the tier-4 towns (Division headquarters, Mondal headquarters)

have been getting vegetables from urban markets. Finally village customers have been paying more than

urban people as they have to also bear the extra transport cost.

Most of the village farmers have been growing paddy, ground nut and dal which are the major

crops in Mahaboobnagar district of Telangana. Due to this single crop cultivation farmers are not able to

find the competing buyers and if one farmer faces some problem, the same problem has been effecting the

other farmers.

This pilot aims at creating the win-win situation for both the farmers and customers by encouraging

the farmers to go for multi crops system and as there is huge market potential [45-50 lacks per month] for

vegetables, my focus area would be motivating the farmers to grow vegetables and to do collective farming

to maintain the diversity of the crops and also to get other benefits. As vegetable farming needs full time

engagement of the farmers at their lands, I would also like to encourage the farmers to go for the integrated

farming with special focus on animal husbandry.

During this pilot we are also aiming to find out what could be the best solution to deal with the

storage and labor issues in farmers’ perspective.

Though the pilot activities are planned with the special focus on vegetables farming the long term

goal is to see farming as primary profession and acceptable career option.

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Problem and Problem Mapping:

Problem statement: “Why farmers are not growing locally consumed vegetables?” Context: This problem is specific to the Mahaboobnagar district of Telangana. Same problem has been

identified in 3 locations Kosgi, Devarkadra and Kodangal all three locations have great market potential and

are connected to number of small villages. Problem description:

Day by day the need for food has been increasing to feed the ever growing population and the problems in

the Agriculture sector have been increasing in greater proportion than need for food. Due to ever growing

challenges in agriculture farmers have been moving away from agriculture in search of alternate livelihood

opportunities. The issue has been further narrowed down to “Why farmers are not growing locally

consumed vegetables?”

Though India is the second largest vegetables producer yet the production is far below than the

actual requirement. As per the secondary data rice and wheat comprise 70% of agriculture produce by area

but less than 25% by value. Day by day the demand for vegetables has been increasing but number of

farmers who grow vegetables has been decreasing (especially in rural areas).

Despite knowing the fact that vegetables farming is more profitable than other crops, farmers are not

growing vegetables. There are lot of factors and the reasons are different in different areas yet below are the

most important factors which are leading to the central problem “why farmers are not growing locally

consumed vegetables”.

Economical Environmental

Structural Miscellaneous

Why farmers are not

growing locally

consumed vegetables?

Social

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Economical:

One of the most important dimensions is economic without which nothing can move forward as

each and every activity in farming is linked with funds. Some of the factors not favouring the farmers are

High input cost: Vegetables farming needs best seeds. Many vegetable crops need special set up for

example bottle guard needs different set up and Tomato needs different set up which intern increases the

overall investment.

Low income: Vegetables prices in the retail market are always high but when it comes to farmers,

investment and income are not in proportion.

Risky investment: Unlike other crops, in vegetables farming there is no guarantee of output. As agriculture

is nature dependent none can predict the future.

High wages: India still follows traditional methods of farming which requires high manpower and in recent

years wages have drastically increased, farmers are unable to bear these high wages.

High maintenance cost: Unlike other crops vegetable farming needs lot of care as they are highly prone to

pests hence it needs 24x7 monitoring which increases both effort and maintenance cost.

Political:

Government intervention is needed at each and every stage starting from supplying better seed

varieties to procuring the farm produce. Below are some of the most important aspects that political system

has been paying least attention.

Political will: Lack of political will is the most important factor that is leading to all the issues related to

administration. Since independence we have been concentrating on expanding the agriculture land but not

on intensifying the existing land.

Influence of govt schemes: Schemes like PDS and NAREGA has lot of implications on agriculture. It is

PDS which has forced farmers to limit to wheat and rice irrespective of their interest. NAREGA has led to

high wages and shortage of labour.

Govt Schemes are limited to regular crops: All Govt schemes focus on regular crops like rice, wheat and

commercial crops but there are hardly any schemes available for vegetable farmers.

Implementation gaps: Though there are number of schemes available to support farmers yet most of the

farmers are not getting benefited from those schemes as there is no proper implementation.

Ignoring farmers in decision making: Farmers have never been included in policy design and decision

making.

No MSP for vegetables: Unlike other crops government does not buy vegetables at MSP. There is no

guarantee that, there will be someone who can buy vegetables even at minimum possible price.

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Social and Cultural:

Any work has to be socially adoptable to flourish but agriculture has been facing some unavoidable

issues with society and below are some of the issues

Change in society: Better education has brought lot of job opportunities. Industrialization and

Urbanization has motivated the agriculture labour to look for better paying jobs.

Dignity of being a big farmer: Vegetables are harvested and sold in smaller quantities at a time where as

food grains are sold in huge quantities which gives farmer respect and feeling of pride in the market.

Family Influence: Lack of family support is also the major factor. Though parents have struggled in

agriculture sector, know the pros and cons but it may not be the case with future generations yet none of the

parents are encouraging their children to choose agriculture as career option.

Dignity and Prestige issue: Doing agriculture and being in agriculture has become the dignity issue and

there is an issue of acceptability of agriculture as a career option.

No unity to influence system: Lack of unity among farmers to influence the political system.

Structural Issues:

Inadequate storage facilities: Farmers do not have adequate storage facilities near by their places so the

moment farmers harvest the crops they have to sell their goods irrespective of the price in the market. In

India storage facilities are still limited to food grains.

Large chain of middle men: Though there is need for middle men who connects the farmers and markets

yet the way middlemen penetrated into the system is harming the agriculture sector and whole price

fluctuations are handled by traders and middlemen.

Shortage of competing buyers: There are no competing buyers to buy the farmers produce.

Logistics issue: Lack of proper transport and logistics also causing huge wastage in vegetable farming.

Lack of quality inputs: Quality of seeds, quality of fertilizers, quality of soil everything has been

decreasing which is leading to poor yielding.

Market fluctuations: There is huge fluctuation in market prices as there are similar fluctuations exist in

demand and supply.

Post-harvest losses: In case of vegetable farming the statistics says that there are 30% of losses due to

improper post-harvest handling.

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Environmental Issues:

Agriculture is nature dependent and any abnormal situation around us will have huge implications

on Agriculture. Some of the most important factors of environment that are leading to our central problem

are

Sensitive to weather: Unlike other crops vegetables are highly sensitive to weather, any changes in

weather have immediate effects on vegetables.

Water Scarcity: In vegetable farming we have to give water at right time but water scarcity has been

increasing and farmers are not able to get water at required time.

Increase in temperature: Every centigrade increase in temperature leads to huge loss in yielding.

Land degradation and soil fertility: with human intervention land has been losing its original biological

structure and fertility has been decreasing due to the usage of fertilisers.

Miscellaneous issues:

There are some important miscellaneous factors which are falling under multiple dimensions.

Lack of mechanization and technology: As labour shortage is increasing day by day we have to adopt

technology and mechanised farming which is still at infant stage in India.

Low price for local products: Irrespective of the quality of the products farmers get very low price if the

products are locally produced.

Engagement of farmers in other activities: These days everyone has been trying to involve in different

activities simultaneously which is not possible if the farmers are growing vegetables as continuous

monitoring is needed in case of vegetables.

Untimely supply of inputs: Due to many reasons like financial issues, availability issues, delay in

transport etc farmers are not been able to give the inputs on time which is disturbing the life cycle of crop.

Labour intensive: Vegetable farming needs high amount of human capital for various activities which is

one of the major concern as labour scarcity and wages are increasing.

Can’t be stored: After all vegetables are perishable products we can’t store them for longer time this is one

of the most important factor that farmers are reluctant to grow vegetables.

Effort required: The amount of effort required in vegetable farming is very high when compared to other

crops.

Problem complexity based on the articles, past experience and field visit:

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Though we have divided the factors into different dimensions most of them falls under multiple

dimensions which means all above dimensions are inseparable and one dimension is affecting the other.

Farmers started shifting to other crops due to the amount of effort required in vegetable farming.

Earlier labour used to be available at cheaper price, due to low wages they started searching for alternate

livelihood opportunities but vegetable farming is highly labour intensive so farmers started shifting to the

crops which are less labour intensive. This happened due to the changing society that is better education

and new opportunities available to labour. The government schemes like NAREGA has major impact on

agriculture, as agriculture labour has been moved to NAREGA with high wage rates when compared to

normal agriculture wages. So this labour structure is a vicious cycle which cannot be separated from

economic and social dimensions.

Like labour who started hunting for better payable alternate options, farmers also started to involve

in alternate income generating activities, which lead the farmers to choose the crops that require less

monitoring effort but vegetable farming requires full time engagement of farmers. This full time

engagement and inability to involve in other activities is leading to the reluctance of family to grow

vegetables.

Lack of unity among the farmers is leading to no pressure on political system which is leading to

lack of political will to solve the illegal structuring of middlemen, though there is requirement for

middlemen the way the whole middlemen system functioning has been effecting the agriculture . Unlike

other crops for vegetables there is no minimum support price that is there is no guarantee buyer for

vegetables which is becoming the plus point for traders and leading to low price for vegetables. Lack of

adequate storage facilities and lack of quality input supply is also the effect of lack of political will and due

to the lack of proper implementation of existing schemes.

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Here the important aspect one has to think is these problems persist to all the farmers then how

come the farmers nearby cities have been growing vegetables this may be due to market availability but this

is not the main reason that farmers stated as the market in our area has huge scope for vegetable farmers. It

is number of factors that are leading to central issue.

It is very difficult to know where exactly the problem lies in and which the root cause of all other

problems is. Investment may be the biggest hurdle for some farmers, water scarcity may be the primary

concern of other famers and market availability may be the problem for another farmer so we cannot reach

to problem consensus. By looking at the above points it is clearly visible that none of the factors leading to

central issue of “why farmers are not growing locally consumed vegetables” are stand alone and each factor

is either the consequence or cause of the other.

Aspiration of intervention:

I would like to see village farmers growing all locally consumed daily needs and getting the best

prices for their products.

I would like to see the farming as acceptable career option.

Venture opportunity and concept:

One of the major issue in agriculture in our area is lack of multiple crops patterns and as of now I am

focusing on vegetable farming due to following need as well as the opportunity.

Our town (Kosgi, Mahaboobnagar district, Telangana) connects to around 25 villages. Most of the

residents of these villages buy vegetables from our town. There are hardly any farmers who grow vegetables

in and around the town so the traders import vegetables from Hyderabad which is 150 kms away from our

town. This importing has been adding to transport cost and which is leading to high prices and finally villagers

pay more than urban people.

The rough statistics from one of the traders says that the transactions worth of 45-50 lacks per month

happens in our town in vegetable market. Almost 90% of the vendors sell imported vegetables.

The idea is to encourage the local farmers to grow vegetables based on the local consumer basket and

to create the platform that will reduce the gap between consumer and the farmer. We would like to do this by

creating the farmers group and providing them with various inputs required before, during and after the

cultivation period by the experts within and outside the groups. Finally creating farmers equity organization

which gives end to end solutions starting from guidance on input usage to connecting the farmers with

customers.

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Assumptions to validate: Farmers are not able to recognize the problem as the problem.

When we make the farmers to realize the economic value in vegetable farming they may shift from

conventional crops to vegetables.

Access to market is not the main reason that village farmers are not growing vegetables.

Farmers are not able to realize the power and benefits of collective farming.

There is a huge scope for integrated farming if the benefits are realized.

Pilot concept:

During the pilot phase I would like to validate all the assumptions. I would like to interact with the

farmers who have been already doing vegetable farming, to analyze the cost-income projections of vegetable

farming. I would like to demonstrate the comparative cost-income projections of various crops with vegetable

farming.

Interacting with local farmers to know the barriers that are stopping them from growing vegetables

and collaborating with expert farmers to demonstrate how these barriers can be overcome. I would also like

to study the local market to know the potential, to understand the supply chain in a deeper way and also to

understand the consumer basket.

As vegetable farming needs full time engagement of farmers at field, I have also planned to use

integrated farming with primary focus on dairy as a means to convince the farmers.

Developing the demonstrating plot in 1 acre of land to understand the practical issues and also to use

this as motivating factor to encourage the farmers to grow vegetables in coming season.

Marketing Plan:

During the pilot phase our focus is on supply side that is convincing the farmers to grow vegetables.

To do this we would be following the demonstrating strategy on various aspects to the individual farmers.

We use demonstrating cost-income projections as a means to showcase the value addition in the farmers’

income.

We would also like to take the help of expert farmers to demonstrate how they have overcome all the

barriers and how do they take care of various issues like dealing with diseases, how do they get best inputs,

how to minimize post harvesting losses, various govt schemes etc.

To make farmers have faith on the market for their products, we would be projecting the market

potential and to what extent local farmers have been supplying at present and also the benefits of consumer

basket based crops. As we would be cultivating vegetables we use that land as demonstrating plot to motivate

and to train the farmers on various practical issues.

As promoting the integrated farming is also one of the component, I would be taking help of local

KVK to promote integrated farming.

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Technology Plan:

Though there are lot of technology solutions available to perform various activities as well as to deal

with various issues, we are looking for the technologies that can be adoptable during the pilot phase. To know

the information about market price on daily bases we would be using AGRIMARKET web site, to know the

information on seeds we use SEEDNET and we are also planning to use ESAGU which connects the farmers

to expert group to solve the issues. All these internet facilities are used to explain the farmers about the source

of information.

Showing some of the innovative/best practice models to the farmers [Bhoomi putra videos on MAA

gold channel] to inspire and motivate them.

Before cultivation if time permits we would go for soil testing which would be the great benefit in

choosing the suitable crops for the soil and during cultivation we use drip irrigation technology to ensure

optimum usage of water. Mulching technique to reduce the weeds which intern reduces the labor cost

involved in weeds removal.

To deal with weather issues, there are technology solutions like polyhouse, greenhouse farming etc

but we may not be able to adopt these technologies during pilot.

Operations plan:

To convince the farmers we need prior information on various aspects that is, what is the value

creation that we are adding, what is the potential of the market, understanding of the consumer basket, from

where do they get input supply, how to resolve maintenance issues, how to minimize the post harvesting

losses. We have planned operations based on these aspects.

As the initial phase of pilot is harvesting season of ground nut I have planned for mechanized

harvesting in our farm to check the economic feasibility of mechanized farming when compared to

traditional farming. The reason for doing this is, though farmers have been practicing mechanized

farming to some extent we do not have financial comparisons as farmers do not maintain accounts.

Collaboration with local KVK to promote integrated farming and organization Vrutti which is pioneer

in creating farmers producers organizations.

Though we have idea about the market yet, we need to understand the market, consumer basket and

supply chain in depth.

Understanding of local crop patterns and amount of money involved, this would be used to analyze

cost-income projections.

As part of integrated farming I will buy 2 pairs of calves and maintain them for 3 months, we would

see the possibility of selling them at the end of pilot.

As storage is one of the measure issue in our area I will have to go to the farmers with feasible storage

model plan or alternate model like food processing industry to deal with storage problem. So I have

to enquire on storage setup cost and its economic viability.

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Meeting the farmers who are already growing vegetables to know issues and dealing strategies

pertaining to vegetable farming.

Analyzing the cost-income projections of various crops and comparison with vegetable farming.

Demonstrating cost-income projections and other benefits of vegetable farming to the farmers and

also promoting integrated farming.

Doing vegetable cultivation in 1 acre of land with multiple crops (possibly 4/5) to get firsthand

experience.

We would also try to demonstrate all the schemes and extension services available to farmers by

government.

We are also planning to take interested farmers who want to grow vegetables in coming season to the

expert farmers to get prior knowledge.

Finding out other possible value addition techniques through vegetable farming like dry vegetables,

food processing techniques etc with the help of institutes like KVK, ANGRU, ICRISAT etc.

Financial plan:

Sources of funding

S.No Source Amount Status 1 Grant from CSE 15000 Yet to be approved

2 Loan from friends 30000 5000 is yet to receive

3 Personal funds 25000 savings

4 Pre pilot fund raising 5000 3000 raised

5 Fund raising during pilot 15500 In discussion with TNAU and

Lamakan is planned in 1st month

Total 70500

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Budget plan

S.No Particulars Amount in RS Remarks

1 Travelling out of town 2000 Hyderabad, Palem(KVK), meeting

farmers

2 Traveling within town 4500 Daily fuel charges

3 Food when out of town 1500 10 days

4 Internet 400 Need internet services in first month of

operations

5 Taking interesting farmers to

the expert farmers

2700 Vehicle for 1 day + food

charges(targeting 5 farmers)

6 Stationary 300 Papers, pens, diary

7 2 pairs of calves 48000 Part of integrated farming

7 Labor cost 3000 Land prep+sowing

8 Seeds 3000 Different varieties

9 Pesticides 10000 Soil pests+sprays

10 Mulching 8000 To reduce weeding cost

11 Tractor and other equipment 1500 Diesel+driver

12 Drip 4000 With subsidy or rent

13 Manure 5000 3 tractors of manure

12 Miscellaneous 2000 Emergency purpose

Total 95900

Plan of action for the pilot:

1. Pre pilot fund raising activity:

In the fund raising activity we have designed a hand drawn sketch t-shirt which has various

elements of TISS which will generate the profit of 10000 and we have sold entire stock and we got

the new stock and expecting more customers.

2. Fund raising activity:

Have been in discussion with Tamilnadu Agriculture University to get the ground nut digger which

has demand from February end to March mid. Transport is an issue I hope it is going to be resolved.

We Akhila, Nikhil and I have planned for fund raising activity Lakaman in Hyderabad an open space to

fund raising for social cause.

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3. Pilot activity calendar with time:

Weekly activities plan

S.No Time (Week)

Activity

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 Economic feasibility study on ground-

nut mechanized harvesting

2 Collaborating with KVK and Vrutti 3 Understanding the market 4 Knowing consumption basket 5 Interaction with local farmers to know

crop patterns

6 Buying and maintaining cattle 7 Interaction with existing vegetable

farmers

8 Analyzing and preparing cost-income

projections

9 Meeting agriculture officer to know the

schemes

10 Demonstrating cost income projections 11 Collection of inputs for cultivation 12 Cultivation and maintenance of

vegetables

13 Local farmers interaction with expert

farmers

14 Finding value addition techniques

through institutes

15 Concrete study on storage set up in local

area

We would decide the rest of the plan according to the situation

Expected impact:

Igniting the spirit in the farmers to grow multiple crops.

Bringing realization among the farmers about the market potential and opportunity.

Knowledge on how to make use of Agriculture extension services.

Awareness among the farmers about the benefits of collective farming.

Realization among the farmers about the scope of integrated farming.